I am broken.
I am naked.
Lying on the earth, the dirt claims my body. It is as if Mother Nature is in a rush today, taking ownership of my remains while my lungs still fill with air. For now…
What difference does it make? I’m dead already. The world ended long ago. My few possessions have been stolen. My… dignity has been taken… I am nothing. My fight is gone. This is where I will die…
I lie there for hours, feeling the hardpack scorch my body as the blazing sun rises in the sky. They left me naked. Not even a sock to cover my toes was left on my body. Every possession stolen—even my will to live.
Then he finds me.
He is older than I. Black hair on his head and in his scruffy beard that is marred with gray. There is a jagged scar carved down the left side of his face. I can see the rifle slung over his broad shoulders and a machete sheathed on his hip. The traveler’s black, shadowed eyes are as empty as everyone else still alive.
Stopping, the stranger looks me over more like he is studying a foreign object than seeing a person. Having been robbed of everything of value, I wait for him to take the one thing I have left. Instead, without speaking, he bends over, scoops me up in his arms, and continues walking.
***
No one told us the world ended. There was no news story. No warning.
One day I was a trauma nurse, a yogi, a surfer, a wife, and a… a mother… and then the bombs went off. It happened so fast, there was no one to tell us who was attacking, why, or how, but I did see the rockets cut through the sky. The gray wisps of smoke trailed from their engines. Dozens of them. I lived in San Francisco when it happened, and I remember watching the missiles launch over the ocean to hit some unknown target. That was the last thing I saw before I entered my hospital’s basements. I wouldn’t see the sky for 4 weeks after that.
I was strong for the first month. We were survivors waiting for a rescue. I became stronger to survive the first year. The hope of rescue had faded to fantasy. Survivors stopped working together. The weak perished quickly in the lawless land. By year two we weren’t survivors anymore. We were just what remained. The unlucky ones who didn’t die quickly in the nuclear war.
The remaining lived by doing the unthinkable. Violence, theft, and trickery became a way of life. The time of honesty, kindness, and honor was a fable. A fairytale. Words like ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ were literally meaningless in a world without compassion.
I was no longer a mother or a wife. I was 5’7, 110 lbs, and burning 3,000 calories a day searching for a few hundred calories in the form of rodents, birds, or the occasional can of vegetables.
I am a scavenger… sometimes I am a robber… I am… sometimes… I kill… Not in self-defense… I became a predator to live within the food chain of predators.
I am a monster.
The thing about food chains, though. No matter how many smaller fish you hunt, there is always a bigger fish hunting for you. My predator came in the form of two men. They spotted me first and chased me down beside a broken-down Chevy pickup truck just west of Freestone, California. I was traveling between towns for trade when the men caught me. They took everything from me—everything. All the worldly possessions that I spent a lifetime collecting to survive this world. Once they stripped me of every possession—including the clothes on my back—I was abandoned in the desert. I wasn’t even worth the energy to kill.
***
I could fight the stranger. I might even have the strength to flee for a distance, but my will to live is stripped with the rest of my clothes. It’s been gone for some time. Survival is just a habit now.
He ignores my dirt-covered breasts bouncing before him with his every step. I should care that he takes me, but I find freedom in not knowing… in not caring… My body, my life, my everything is his to take. I am ready for this wretched life to be over.
The sun sets by the time we reach the ocean. The pink and purple hues burn over the blue Pacific like fire or ice. He sets me down to strip naked, only to pick me up again and walk me into the water.
“Ah! Mmm!” I whimper from how cold the ocean feels on my sunburnt flesh.
“Shh shhh. It’s okay,” he whispers, tightening his hold on me.
By the time I’m submerged to my throat, I find my arms are wrapped around his neck like he is my safety blanket. His calloused palms begin to rub over my shivering body, brushing away the crusts of dirt from my skin slowly and deliberately. My eyes flick between the marvelous pastels painting in the sky and the shadows looming where the stranger’s eyes are. Suddenly, the water feels warm. His hand slides up the center of my body, between my breasts, and to my throat, and I gasp, thinking this is it, but his fingers only scrub behind my ears before running back down my chest.
Who is this man and what does he want?
The bathing continues until the sun touches the horizon. My heart disobeys me and races when his palm slips between my thighs and down my butt crack, but his touch doesn’t linger. When we leave the water, my shivers return, and he wraps me in a thick blanket he had in his pack.
Before the sun falls to black, he has a fire pit burning near a fallen tree and several fish cooking. The more time that passes, the more bewildered I become. Moving my limp body like I’m a manikin, he slides a baggy, long-sleeved shirt on me and then a pair of sweatpants.
These are his clothes… he’s giving me his clothes… What’s his angle?
As he divides the cooked fish into two plastic bowls, I find myself continuously looking over my shoulder at every crash of waves on the shore. I search for the attack that never comes.
“W-What is this? What are you doing?!” I explode when he sets the bowl of food beside me. The anticipation of the attack becomes too great for me to bear.
He looks at me, and for the first time, under the warm light of the fire, I can see the whites surrounding his brown eyes. “Sharing a meal,” he says.
“Why?”
He blinks and sighs, sitting back down on his side of the fire. “Because that’s what friends do.”
I stare at him for a long moment. His words process slowly as if I’m translating them from a different language. “What do you—I’m not your friend—friends don’t exist.”
“Sure, they do,” he says, starting to eat his bowl of food.
“Wha—” I start to yell, but stop myself. I shake my head down at the steaming food in my bowl. “I’m not giving you anything for this. I don’t have anything to give!”
“Okay.”
I snatch his shirt I’m wearing and hold it out. “I’m not giving you this back either!”
He shrugs. “It’s yours.”
I scoff and realize I’m panting. A flare of rage boils inside me, and I don’t know why. I hate this man.
I hate this man… I hate that he’s alive. I hate that he’s helping me… I hate that… that…
“Why didn’t you just kill me?” I ask through gritted teeth.
“Because friends don’t hurt friends.”
“I’m not your friend!” I snap and feel a tear break down my cheek. Knowing better than to show weakness, I wipe it away with the back of my hand and throw up my hands in frustration. “Ugh!”
We eat in silence. My belly growls hungrily throughout the meal, and I try not to let it show that I enjoy the food. When it’s over, he goes down to the surf with his bowl and washes it out. I hesitate and then do the same. The water on my ankles and hands is refreshing now. I finish washing and realize he just stands in the water now, staring at the stars blinking behind the moon. I think it’s strange until I allow myself to let go of my thoughts and do the same. I gasp in wonder up at the clear night sky and crisp air for the first time in years.
“You’re just going to sleep?” I ask when we return to the fire. He tosses two logs into the flames and pulls a blanket over himself. “I could steal your stuff in the middle of the night.”
“You could.”
His carefree answer annoys me. “I… I could kill you.”
“You could try,” he says, rolling his back to me.
I sit in the sand for a long moment, wondering what is wrong with this man. Staring at his broad back flexed beneath his shirt, a memory strikes me like a punch. It’s of a time and a place I don’t think of anymore. A memory of the world before and how kind men once were…
How kind I once was… I think. Could that really have been me?
The fresh wood piece catches fire when I scoot closer to the stranger. My… savior… My hand touches his shoulder lightly, and he turns to face me, his eyes searching mine. I feel the thick barriers my mind, heart, and soul place between us crack apart one at a time as I lean down and kiss him. It’s gentle and tender. My anxiety peaks when his hand reaches up to cup my cheek, but I let him. His tongue slides in my mouth, and I feel more vulnerable than I have in my life.
Lowering my body to his, he wraps the blanket over both of us, and I know in that moment that we are united.
“Mmm,” I whimper into our intense kiss as I feel his hands close around my back and hips. My palm rubbing over the divots on his muscular chest, I let him slide my pants off as I pull his down. “Mmahhmm!” I gasp when his hands grip both my ass cheeks and squeeze, pulling me onto his lap.
His tongue laps the roof of my mouth as I feel his long, hard member flex against my soft bush. I break from the kiss long enough to peel my shirt off my head, and suddenly I am as naked as the moment he discovered me. My breasts dangle freely in the night’s air. The cool wind sweeps over the Pacific tide and chills me, but the crackling fire beside us warms my flesh.
The stranger slips his palms up my center and cups my breasts, gently, at first. A puzzle forms across my brow when he squeezes them. I lick my lips as I drag my moist pussy up and down the length of his shaft, grinding on it as I feel it flex back on me.
“Mmmahh, ohh…” I pant as his fingers pinch my nipples. I smile down at him and return the gesture, then snake a hand behind my neck and pull my lips back down to his.
The kiss is different this time. Needy and hungry. He groans as he grips my ass cheek, pulling me up as he lowers his hips. I can feel the swollen tip of his cock rub against my clit, nearing my entrance. My hands clutch the sides of his cheek and neck as my breath catches in my throat. When his shaft finally finds its way inside me, I don’t think I’ve ever been so aroused in my life.
“Mmmm, fuck…” I whimper between kisses. I feel this older man’s bare cock slice between my pussy lips. “Ahh gahmm!”
His warm hands slide up my spine and grip my shoulders from behind. My dark hair falls to the side of our faces as I begin to ride this stranger’s cock as he pumps it up inside me. Hugging against his warm chest and with his tongue pressing against mine, I feel closer to this man than anyone. We are trapped between fire and water. For this brief moment, the evil of the world falls away, and we are all that remains.
“Mmm, yes! Fuck me,” I moan, and the older man answers the call.
In one swift motion, he rolls me onto my back into the cool sand and grips my thighs beneath my knees. Pulling his shaft all the way out, he slams it back inside me with force.
“Ughmm!” I moan and clap a hand over my mouth. We’re alone for now, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t predators still roaming this lawless land. “Mm! Mm! Mmm!” I hum with each hard thrust inside me.
I can feel his cock filling me up as he pounds me into the earth with hard thrusts. Gritty, moist sand clings to my sweaty body. The tall flames of our fire dance beside us, making orange light swim over half his body. The crash of the tide coming in is the only thing, besides my hands, that muffles my cries as the pleasure builds like a volcano inside me.
“Oh, my—yes… yes… I’m going to… oh, fuck…” I whimper. With a final thrust, I feel his cock slam inside me and hold as my pussy clenches him and pulsates. “Oh, my fucking Godmmm!” I moan, muffling myself.
The orgasm is too powerful for words. The pleasure is like floodgates being released across a trapped river. My palms hide my face as my thighs quiver and my juices leak over the stranger’s cock. My heart beats so fast, for a moment, the fear of a heart attack mixes with the ecstasy of the unrelenting orgasm.
I’m not sure how much time passes, but I open my eyes when my stranger’s hands gently pull my hands from my face. I start to relax when he withdraws himself from me and guides me to my hands and knees. He positions me with patience as my limbs are slow to respond. Once on my hands and knees, the older man takes a moment to brush away the sand stuck to my back. I look at him over my shoulder, and we smile and share a brief laugh at how much there is.
It isn’t until the tip of his cock touches my pussy lips once more that I realize how sensitive I still am. He pushes the tip of his cock inside me slowly until it is buried deep and all the way. My lips part in a silent scream as I feel his palm rub over the curve of my ass, up the center of my back, and grab the back of my neck. Pulling out, he shoves his cock back inside me quickly and suddenly we are two animals fucking in the wild.
“Oh, my fucking God, yes… yes! Fuck me!” I cry out as I feel his body crashing into mine.
I’m kneeling facing the fire and can feel the heat of the snapping logs flush my face and bake my flesh. The warmth feels amazing on my bare tits as they clap and sway beneath my body with every hard buck of his hips slamming into mine.
The stranger groans and picks up the pace as he fucks me, and I know he’s close. The thought of this strange man—my hero—releasing his cum inside me sends me into an endless loop downward into an insatiable orgasm.
“Oh, f-fuck! J-jesu—ughhh, fuck I’m gunna—oh my—Shit! I’m gunna fucking cum!” I stutter as the air leaves my body and my eyes roll backward.
His body forms to mine as I feel his cock jam deep inside my pussy as his arm wraps across my chest, groping my breasts. The man’s lips kiss my cheek, and his hot breath bathes the side of my throat as he groans, emptying his warm, milky semen inside my spasming pussy.
My toes curl, and my fingers clench, forming balls of sand in my grip as the orgasm assaults me with a love and pleasure my body doesn’t know anymore. The seizure running through my arms and legs might have caused me to fall into the fire, but his arm draped across my chest holds me safely to him like a seatbelt.
We both pant, frozen in place for several moments. With every flex of his cock, my pussy squeezes back in a silent conversation between lovers. Finally, we collapse beside the fire. Naked, sweaty, and covered in sand.
I lie closest to the fire, facing it. His body spoons against my backside as our hands and fingers dance with one another, and our eyes are lost in the mesmerizing fire.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask after several minutes.
“What?”
“What’s your name?”
He stifles a laugh, and I do the same.
“John. And you? What’s your name?” he asks.
“…Amber…” I manage.
John kisses the top of my head and whispers. “Nice to meet you, Amber.”
I smile, closing my hands around his and tucking them against my breasts.
“Nice to meet you, John.”
Our bodies relax into the sand, listening to waves crash and the dwindling fire pop. When I finally drift to sleep, squeezed in his embrace, I do so knowing I have found a way to wake in the morning.
My body, my life, my everything is John’s to keep. I am ready for this new life to begin.
